Overtoke TV News for 08-18-2018

Marijuana comedy variety show Ep48Part3

Marijuana comedy NBC

Splitsider – Comedians like Doug Benson and Stephen Colbert have been getting a lot of joke-mileage out of Colorado’s legalization of marijuana last January. The name is derived from Khalatbari’s chain of pizza restaurants, Sexy Pizza, one of which hosted the first Sexpot Comedy show early last year. The show has since grown and splintered into several regular events, hosted at different comedy clubs and music venues around town under the Sexpot banner. For years Denver has been a known destination for touring comics; the thirty-year-old Comedy Works has been proclaimed by performers like Dave Chappelle and Dave Attell as their favorite comedy club. Last summer, Juett and comedian Adam Cayton-Holland produced Denver’s first large-scale comedy festival, The High Plains Comedy Festival, which was headlined by Reggie Watts and ended up being a sold-out success.

It was Kayvan Khalatbari’s marijuana dispensary, Denver Relief, that initially sponsored several different comedy shows and podcasts around town, back when Sexpot was just a witty pun being tossed around. While this continues in some arenas, the Sexpot Comedy shows have been gaining a lucrative momentum of their own, in part thanks to Juett’s utilization of the local comedy radio station for marketing, as well as the throbbing enthusiasm coming from Colorado’s energized marijuana scene. There’s no getting around the fact that some cannabis consumption goes on at Sexpot shows, whether through edibles, vaporizers or straight-up smoldering joints. To get into the legality of public pot smoking would be an exhaustive and inconclusive affair; the truth is that no one, not even the legislators, venue owners or police are completely certain of where the line is drawn on this issue. While some Denver comedians don’t care for a stoned audience Andy Juett – who himself has acted in many sketch videos and recently began performing standup – says that there are upsides to playing for a red-eyed crowd.

Khalatbari shares Juett’s feeling that marijuana shouldn’t come to dominate the identity of Sexpot Comedy. He’s derisive of the Cannabis Cup and 420 Festival culture that has become an unfortunate media focus of Colorado marijuana scene; and says that he is equally sick of the endless cosmos-and-munchies jokes that every hack comedian rolls out when performing in Denver.

Heavy marijuana users showing up at the ER ‘scromiting’

Chronic cannabis users are at risk of experiencing a horrifying new condition that is being reported at hospitals across the country. ‘Scromiting,’ doctors say, is becoming an all-too-familiar site at emergency rooms, with patients ‘screaming and vomiting’ as they turn up for help. The condition, called Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, is not properly understood but medical experts believe the symptoms appear from individuals using or consuming heavy amounts of marijuana over a long period of time. Dr Aimee Moulin, an emergency room physician at UC-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, said she has seen a rise in cases since California legalized recreational marijuana last November. Little research has been conducted on the topic, but one study found that for scromiting to occur, cannabis users would have to consume marijuana three to five times per day to develop CHS.’In one study the average duration of cannabis use prior to onset of recurrent vomiting was… 3.4 years,’ the National Center for Biotechnology Information report added. ‘The syndrome was first described in 2004 by Allen and colleagues and is characterized by chronic cannabis use, cyclic episodes of nausea and vomiting, and the learned behavior of hot bathing,’ doctors wrote. Medical experts note that the condition could stem from the body being over saturated by cannabinoids – chemical compounds that acts on cannabinoid receptors located in the brain.

The build up the cannabinoids, doctors believe, affect the function of the hypothalamus, which regulates digestion and body temperature. In Colorado, Dr. Kennon Heard, an emergency physician at the University of Colorado in Aurora said they are diagnosing more cases however he doesn’t believe cases increased after recreational use was legalized in 2012, because chronic users probably already had medical marijuana cards. According to the NCBI: ‘Often mistakenly called Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome, Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome is a rare form of cannabinoid toxicity that develops in chronic smokers. ‘It’s characterized by cyclic episodes of debilitating nausea and vomiting. People who suffer from the syndrome often find that hot showers relieve their symptoms, and will compulsively bathe during episodes of nausea and vomiting.

Ohio won’t hit Sept. 8 deadline for medical marijuana

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio said Tuesday that it will not have medical marijuana available by the September deadline, even as a key backer of recreational marijuana legalization said he’s using a combination of strategies to continue expanding access to safe cannabis. Several cultivators who were close to ramping up operations experienced inspection delays that now make it impossible to meet the date set by Ohio’s 2016 medical marijuana law, Department of Commerce policy adviser Mark Hamlin said. Hamlin contended that the state is not technically out of compliance with the law, because it called for the program itself – not the marijuana – to be ready on the implementation date. Ohio has licensed 25 large and small growers and on Monday awarded 56 dispensary licenses. Ian James, who ran the unsuccessful ballot campaign to legalize both recreational and medical marijuana in 2015, likened a series of missteps with the program – including a convicted felon placed on an application screening committee, shared passwords and missed deadlines – to a classic satirical comedy.

James, founder and president of Green Light Acquisitions LLC, outlined a well-funded, multi-pronged approach for how his various business and political interests are pushing forward on $250 million of related projects. James said his business has developed a line of therapeutic lotions, soaps and sprays using cannabidiol that he’s marketing to large national retailers, including Urban Outfitters and Sephora. The firm also is moving into insurance, pet products and beverages, he said. James said his plans to pursue another constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana for personal use, which would likely appear on the 2020 ballot, haven’t been dampened by a competing proposal. If lawmakers don’t act, he said his campaign organization would push it to the ballot as an initiated statute.

Another bill he’s advocating would open Ohio to hemp cultivation that’s now legal in many surrounding states, a proposal James said is backed by the American Farm Bureau. Green Light attorney Ted Bibart said creating good cannabis policy is key to advocates’ ultimate goal.